Life in the Balance

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Well, it is almost summer time. The weeks of school are slowly coming to an end and the fun of grilling out and exploring the vast coolness of Indiana is lurking upon us.

Balance. That is the theme right? Balance in spirituality, health, friends and family? Well I believe where balance lies for me is knowing what I want to do the rest of my life. I have about 3-4 major interests in my life I would consider doing, possibly professionally, or just as a hobby/career type. Each time I mull them over in my head, organizing how to connect each hobby and wanting/trying to make it into a paying career, I think is it really possible? Could I really have 15 areas of professionalism and still make it?

I have so many loves and interests and yet so little time. I cannot go to college for every interest, although me having a Master's Degree sounds pretty cool right now:) But then comes another question; A Master's in WHAT!?

So I've listed once, listed a second time, and possibly, just to get it down pat (does anyone use that "down pat" anymore? anyone know what I mean?) a third time what I would like to do in the next 5-10 years.

1. Dive deep into a bible study that just spews forth the word of God to me that makes me feel that I have spiritually arrived :) hehe.(I know no master's lies in that)

2.Dog Grooming- with only 3 months to be certified, and with my love for animals that's a no brainer not to go for that one.

3. Learn how, on a professional level, decorate cakes or even do pastries. My brother is a baker at Geist Bakery and I'm very proud of him, plus it makes me feel cool to know we have a baker in the family, and maybe by some slim chance his coolness will rub off onto me or he will at least me photograph some of his stuff . :) :)

4. With #2 and 3# stated comes the whole open door flooding thoughts with my other adventures and goals.
I would love to do photography. I believe among all the other goals I have that is my fave and natural one. I have not honed down on the eye for it yet but I am learning slowly but surely. I look at photos, much like I do jewelery, and think, hey I want ot do that!

5. With all that said I would like to take more schooling. But when the time is right and the Lord opens the door I will maybe know what I would like to study.

After I list all those down my brain goes from one to the other wondering and trying conquer how to know more about each area and how to make a living off it, sometimes gives me a headache. It is sort of like me trying to clean house or organize, I find one thing that makes me either stop and look at it or makes me think of something I had to do right away or I will forget it, and then I forget the original task. :)

This summer I would like to be more fit, I was pretty proud of us walking the 5K, I was deeply inspired by older men and ladies walking with many more hindrances than what I had. If they could walk a measly 5K I certainly could. But for 3 days in a row the cravings for a Bacon Cheeseburger really killed my streek of eating farely healthy, they tatsted AMAZING though. :)

So yeah. Knowing what you want to do with your life and what is more important and achievable is part of finding balance. At least that's my profound thought for the day, so go knit it on a pillow or iron it on a t-shirt or whatever you do with profound thoughts these days.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

As I sit here I wonder if I have learned the art of obtaining a life of balance. My spiritual life? nah, nah, nah. I am still struggling in that area. I would like to say that after I've been to college and many chapel hours I would have everything nicely put together. But it seems just the opposite. I feel as though instead of coming out of college feeling like I am on the road to success I feel as though I am still looking for my niche as I call it. At MBBC I was surrounded by awesome godly men and women that I bonded with. I spent a whole Summer, which does not sound at all like a long time, at a camp that I had devoted my every waking minute to ministering and working outside myself for the work of God.

After a year of being home I feel schmeh. I feel as though I am not where I should be and I'm doing exactly what I was doing before college; coasting. I want to be doing something totally outside myself, totally not what I've been doing. I want to look at my college experiences and know that everything, and the loads of money, I invested is being used for God's glory. I know it's about patience.

Then the whole working out and eating healthy is another fight for balance in my life. It seems as though heating healthy is going well, not as much eating out, which is good in saving money:). Knowing that exercising is not really being done and of course our Mini- Marathon will be here within days is totally awesome, I mean the fact that I will be walking a whole lotta miles with a friend is pretty much the most amazing thing in my life :) I think knowing we get a "package" is making me excited:)

I can see us preparing for the day of walking off our legs by tieing up our little tennies and packing a 24 pack of that wonderfully, supposedly purified, NATURAL H2O. YES we are ready! We are ready to be fit and walk about, hopefully :), half our body weight:).

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Well for me it's been a while. Once in a while I have a week of hours to blog and to check in on the world of Facebook then other weeks I won't have any hours. If we had Wifi at our place that would be easier.

Any-who, balance. I hate when I have time and only think of working out and eating right. I hate waking up planning the hours before me and seeing I have 20 minutes to get shredded with Jillian knowing it would be great to begin the week with a workout, but instead I see all the other stuff I can do and equally as important as working out and that's only one or two of activities.

For me, the problem to finding balance is not having the time, having the place, having equipment, but it's actually doing it. It's seeing that finding balance is a necessity of life. Of course I feel better after I workout, showering and getting ready for the day. It's the having the choice and weighing my options that's the problem. I only worked out twice last week, when I had almost everyday to workout. I didn't eat very healthy, I bathed dogs till 1 then I work 230-10 or whatever and McD's seems to be the only solution. I did have Subway for lunch/dinner a couple of times which made me feel better, but still while my friends in this quest of finding balance for life seem to barely have time to sleep and eat and they would love to workout and eat healthy, I have a few hours and I choose to do stuff that aren't really important. Schmeh.

So yeah I've been struggling lately with that little epiphany. While others suffer with trying to find balance I'm trying to use the time that balance could easily fit in and I don't allow it.

So tonight is party night, where after church me and the girls are going to Starbucks and drinking 350 calorie drinks and to play cards. Woot for us. :)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Hey, kids it's me again. So, I wasn't able to do my 2nd post last week, but, hey, that just means that I'll write three this week, and I love writing, so that won't be a problem.

The first few days/weeks have been good--stocking up on healthy fruits and snacks and detoxing teas. Yesterday was tough, though. I wanted meat; I've been told that I don't consider a meal a true meal until it has a small morsel of meat in it as the main dish. Saturday we went to the store for groceries, not knowing really what to get. Near the end, the cart was full; I looked down and thought, "Umm so we have snacks, fruits and water. What in the world are we going to eat this week?!" I don't care if it's meat, if it's pasta or tofu, (well tofu is a little far) but I know there are side dishes and there is the main meal. We had no main meals. After talking about soups and sliced turkey, etc. I calmed down. :)

I have had some pretty yummy snacks since this whole dieting thing started. Fiber Plus bars are GRRRRREEAT, especially the Chocolate Caramel Coconut ones; they taste just like Macaroons:). There are others that are yummy as well. Special K has some good stuff out there. For cereal I would avoid the fake, gritty chocolate/flakes one, but the yogurt/flakes are yummy. Meal and snack bars are yummy. Special K protein water is also a good idea; I've tried the strawberry and pink lemonade.

We did discover a new snack this weekend, and you can have 23 of them! Kroger/Payless just came out with "Pop Chips." Chip-sized goodness that look like miniature rice cakes, but they are "popped" chips--no frying, no baking. They are nothing like rice cakes though (a good thing.) You can have 23 chips and not kill your calorie intake for the snack. They also satisfy that salty, crunchy craving. I mean, after 23 chips if they don't satisfy it, I doubt anything will. They are also on sale this week, till Thursday--3 for $5; they are regularly 2.99!

I haven't worked out much, except this morning I tried our new video--Jillian M's 30 Day Shred. It was intense, most likely from the lack of not exercising a few weeks. I'm telling you what, after 30 days of this, something better shred off of me.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Seeing that this is my first entry of our new blog, I might as well let everyone know that I'm uber excited about this accountability and the chance to share with many (or the few who will actually read this) any great news, info, recipes, or anything of that sort dealing with food and health on here. Food, like music, is very much a part of our lives. It comforts us, it gives us a chance to explore, to create something as unique as ourselves...

As I thought over what I would say in my first entry, how could I introduce this blog to those who read it or pass over it, I kept thinking of when I was younger. We would go out to fast food places quite often. I especially remember times at Wendy's when I would eat whoever's left over fries. Mom would warn me lovingly that I shouldn't and my dad comforted me in saying, "Oh it's ok; she's still young! She has time work it off." That is when something clicked inside, telling me, "Enh, let's shove a couple more burgers down her, and she'll be fine." My parents weren't mean; they were the best they knew how to be. It was my taking what they said and running with it that did the damage. Their words have been echoing in my mind ever since as a comfort of being untouchable by weight, by continuously telling myself that I may be one of those lucky ones with high metabolism. Bwahahaha--if I were I wouldn't be writing this blog, kids.

Over the years weight always came up; I come from a family of big-boned and strong people, who are also unhealthy eaters. Attempts of eating healthier were always bouncing in and out of our lives. I was not, nor will I ever be stick thin. But I know I can be thinner. In high school I seemed to stay at a normal weight, feeling like, "Hey food doesn't affect me; let's chow down, baby."

I'm not sure when it hit me--but only a few years ago, I noticed I could, in fact, gain weight! What a shock! Dad was probably right when he said I could eat anything, but those days had gone, and I didn't work it off.

In college, attempts were there for eating healthy, and working out lasted a few weeks (except that blasted week of exams and no time for extra activities such as sleeping and working out).

No matter how many times the attempts had come, they quickly fleeted out of my life. Recently I realized I just didn't feel well. I felt sluggish: I felt like the food I was eating was literally changing the way my body felt as I ate the food. I dislike the fact that random body aches and problems are coming up. I dislike the fact that I simply cannot eat foods like I used to.

31 is the chance to change it all. I've been seeing attempts of losing weight and getting fit keep flying in and out my whole life. I'm not young; the pounds are not going to just walk off my body for me. I need to realize my whole life is ahead of me, but only if I'm willing to make it a "whole life."

So this is the day, this is the week, this is the year I am getting healthy and getting fit. Knowing what to eat and not eat. Saying no to food I don't have to have and making substitutions. I need to realize that I do not need to have chocolate everyday or be eating whenever I am sitting down just to do something.

My wonderful mother is now a diabetic, and my wonderful dad passed away of heart problems when I was 18-years-old. If the Lord blesses me with children some day, I do not want them to see what I've seen. Unhealthiness stops here.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Well, here I am! My first day on the blog and the first day of the journey towards health and balance! This blog is the accountability spot, the sharing place, and hopefully a means of staying in touch as I work on being a balanced, healthy, godly woman. I'm hoping to share recipes, exercises, struggles, triumphs, and...well...life!...as I communicate here. I'm trying to use this blog for new encouragment, inspiration, and motivation to get up, get healthy, and stay balanced in life!